AMD Radeon Pro W5500 vs NVIDIA Tesla M4 Comparison

# NVIDIA Tesla M4 vs AMD Radeon Pro W5500

The NVIDIA Tesla M4 and AMD Radeon Pro W5500 represent two very different eras of workstation GPU design. The Tesla M4, built on 28 nm Maxwell 2.0 architecture, was designed for compact, low-power compute acceleration, while the Radeon Pro W5500 leverages 7 nm RDNA 1.0 for a full-featured workstation card with display outputs. Benchmark data shows a decisive performance gap in favor of the AMD card, but the Tesla M4’s efficiency profile tells a different story.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single head-to-head benchmark available—Geekbench OpenCL—shows a dominant win for the AMD Radeon Pro W5500. The AMD card scores 45615, while the NVIDIA Tesla M4 scores 16932. This represents a delta of -62.9% for the Tesla M4 relative to the Radeon Pro W5500, meaning the AMD card delivers more than 2.6 times the OpenCL performance. That is not a marginal difference; it is a generational leap. The Radeon Pro W5500’s score places it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, while the Tesla M4 sits at the 60th percentile, yet the raw score gap is enormous because the Tesla M4’s percentile is driven by a much older benchmark distribution.

Context from nearest rivals helps frame these scores. The Tesla M4’s 16932 OpenCL result sits within 0.8% of the NVIDIA T400 4 GB (16792) and within 0.9% of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17083). It trails the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (17019) by 0.5% and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037) by 0.6%. Those deltas are all under a percentage point, indicating the Tesla M4 is clustered tightly with mid-range cards from several generations. Meanwhile, the Radeon Pro W5500’s 45615 OpenCL score is 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (15548) and 1% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M380 (15521)—wait, those rival scores are far lower than 45615. The deltaPct values in the nearestRivals field are computed relative to the rival’s average score, not the head-to-head score. So the W5500’s nearest rivals average around 15500–15800, meaning the W5500’s 45615 OpenCL score is roughly 2.9 times higher than its nearest rival average. The head-to-head delta of -62.9% for the Tesla M4 confirms the W5500’s OpenCL advantage is overwhelming.

The Radeon Pro W5500 also has a broader benchmark portfolio. It scores 54302 in Geekbench Metal, 42021 in Geekbench Vulkan, 8978 in Passmark G3D, and 4804 in Passmark GPU Compute. Its Passmark DirectX scores are lower—126 in DirectX 9, 56 in DirectX 11, 47 in DirectX 10, 39 in DirectX 12—and the G2D score is 806. The Tesla M4 has no corresponding results for these tests, so cross-test comparisons are impossible. What is clear is that the W5500’s OpenCL score is its strongest compute indicator, and it crushes the Tesla M4 there.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher OpenCL benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 scores 45615 in Geekbench OpenCL, versus 16932 for the NVIDIA Tesla M4, a delta of -62.9% for the Tesla M4.

Q: How does the Tesla M4 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Tesla M4’s 16932 OpenCL score is within 0.8% of the NVIDIA T400 4 GB (16792), 0.9% of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17083), 0.5% below the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (17019), and 0.6% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037).

Q: What is the Radeon Pro W5500’s performance relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The W5500’s average benchmark score is 15679. It is 0.8% above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (15548) and 1% above the AMD Radeon R9 M380 (15521), while trailing the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15852) by 1.1% and the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862) by 1.2%.

Q: Does the Tesla M4 have any benchmark wins over the W5500?

A: No. In the single head-to-head benchmark (Geekbench OpenCL), the Radeon Pro W5500 wins outright. The wins tally shows 0 for the Tesla M4 and 1 for the W5500.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference between the two cards?

A: The Radeon Pro W5500 has 224.0 GB/s bandwidth with 8 GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, while the Tesla M4 has 88.00 GB/s bandwidth with 4 GB GDDR5 on the same 128-bit bus.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. Both are end-of-life. The Tesla M4 was released on 2015-11-09 and the Radeon Pro W5500 on 2020-02-09.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is stark. The NVIDIA Tesla M4 uses the GM206 chip built on Maxwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on TSMC’s 28 nm process. It packs 2,940 million transistors into a 228 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.9 million per mm². The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 uses the Navi 14 chip on RDNA 1.0 architecture, fabricated on TSMC’s 7 nm process. It contains 6,400 million transistors on a smaller 158 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 40.5 million per mm²—more than three times the density of the Tesla M4.

The Tesla M4’s Maxwell 2.0 architecture is a compute-oriented design with 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output pipelines. It supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. There are no ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as those features did not exist in Maxwell. The Radeon Pro W5500’s RDNA 1.0 architecture is a modern gaming-and-workstation hybrid, with 1408 shading units, 88 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It also supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, and similarly lacks dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores. The RDNA 1.0 design emphasizes higher clock speeds and improved instruction efficiency over the older GCN-based designs, which is reflected in its much higher FP32 throughput.

The Tesla M4’s compute capabilities are modest: FP32 performance is 2.195 TFLOPS, with no FP16 support listed. The Radeon Pro W5500 delivers 5.224 TFLOPS FP32 and doubles that to 10.45 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 ratio. Pixel rate for the Tesla M4 is 34.30 GPixel/s and texture rate is 68.61 GTexel/s; the W5500 achieves 59.36 GPixel/s and 163.2 GTexel/s respectively. The W5500 also supports a wider API and feature set, including four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, while the Tesla M4 has no display outputs at all—it is a pure compute accelerator.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every major specification. The Tesla M4 has a base clock of 872 MHz and a boost clock of 1072 MHz, while the Radeon Pro W5500 runs at 1744 MHz base and 1855 MHz boost—roughly double the clock speeds. Memory is another major split: the Tesla M4 uses 4 GB of GDDR5 at 1375 MHz (5.5 Gbps effective) for 88.00 GB/s bandwidth; the W5500 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. Both use a 128-bit memory bus, but the newer memory type and higher clock give the W5500 a 2.5x bandwidth advantage.

Power consumption diverges sharply. The Tesla M4 has a TDP of 50 W and requires a suggested power supply of 250 W, with no power connectors listed—it draws entirely from the PCIe slot. The Radeon Pro W5500 has a TDP of 125 W, requires a 300 W power supply, and uses a single 6-pin power connector. Both are single-slot cards. The Tesla M4 uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, while the W5500 uses PCIe 4.0 x8, which offers double the per-lane bandwidth but half the lanes. The W5500’s physical dimensions are listed as 241 mm in length and 111 mm in height; the Tesla M4’s dimensions are not specified.

Release timing also differs: the Tesla M4 launched on 2015-11-09, and the Radeon Pro W5500 on 2020-02-09. The Tesla M4’s predecessor is Tesla Kepler and its successor is Tesla Pascal; the W5500’s predecessor is Radeon Pro Vega, with no successor listed. The W5500 has a launch MSRP of 399 USD, while the Tesla M4 has no launch MSRP field.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear winner for most workloads: the AMD Radeon Pro W5500. Its 45615 OpenCL score versus 16932 for the Tesla M4 is a decisive margin, and its additional 8 GB GDDR6 memory, 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, and 5.224 TFLOPS FP32 performance make it the more capable compute card by every measurable metric. The W5500 also offers display outputs, making it a flexible workstation solution, whereas the Tesla M4 is a headless accelerator.

The Tesla M4’s only advantages are power efficiency and compactness. At 50 W TDP with no auxiliary power connector, it can run in systems with a 250 W power supply, whereas the W5500 needs 125 W and a 300 W supply. For ultra-low-power compute deployments or legacy server environments, the Tesla M4 might still find a niche. But its 4 GB memory and 88.00 GB/s bandwidth are severe limitations for modern datasets, and its 60th percentile standing among all GPUs does not compensate for the 62.9% performance deficit in the head-to-head test.

For buyers choosing between these two end-of-life cards, the Radeon Pro W5500 is the rational pick for any task involving OpenCL compute, rendering, or multi-display output. The Tesla M4 is only worth considering if power draw is the absolute priority and performance expectations are minimal. The benchmark results are unambiguous: the W5500 wins the only direct comparison by a landslide, and its broader feature set reinforces that verdict.